IntroductionIn 1776 the Spanish established a fort in northern California at the Golden Gate and a mission named for Francis of Assisi on the site. The California Gold Rush in 1848 propelled the city into a period of rapid growth transforming it into the largest city on the American West Coast at the time. Today, San Francisco is a popular international tourist destination, renowned for its chilly summer fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture and its famous landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and Chinatown.

Alcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay. Often referred to as The Rock, the small island early-on served as a lighthouse, a military fortification and a military prison. The island became a federal prison in 1934 and during the 29 years of operation the penitentiary claimed no prisoners had ever successfully escaped. Today, the island is a historic site operated by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is open to tours.

Released in April 2007, Conquer Club's San Francisco map works well with any settings and works best with 2-6 players. The map consists of 42 regions with 6 traditional bonus zones. There is also the Alcatraz bonus, which will give you an additional +1 troop for each bonus zone held.

In a two player game, each player starts with 14 regions, leaving the remaining 14 regions with 3 neutral troops at the beginning of the game. Starting with 14 regions gives a player 4 troops to deploy at the start of the turn (without considering bonus zones). In order to gain an early advantage, you need to increase your regions and thus reduce your opponents. It is unlikely that you will be able to reduce your opponent to 11 regions in the first round and thus reducing his or her deployable troops to 3; however, this should be the main goal and is likely to give you a decisive advantage. At the very least you should try to increase your regions to 15 in order to get 5 troops to deploy at the start of your turns.

The easiest bonus zone to conquer and hold on this map is the Contra Costa bonus zone, which is 4 regions (+2 troop bonus with two entry points). There is a chance a player can start with this bonus zone which of course will be a huge advantage. If you have 2 or 3 regions of this bonus zone at the start of the game then it should be a main priority to conquer and hold it. The first entry point into the Contra Costa bonus zone is Refineries and San Rafael. As this is a bottleneck, it is natural to conquer San Rafael in order to secure the bonus zone (unless of course San Rafael is a starting neutral region, in which case it will provide a natural defense in itself). The other entry point to the Contra Costa bonus zone is El Cerrito, which can be assaulted from Tilden Park and Berkely. It would help protect the zone bonus if you capture these regions from your opponent; however, it may not be wise to launch an all out assault on these regions early on as it could leave El Cerrito vulnerable.

If you are able to capture and secure the Contra Costa bonus zone, expanding into Marin is the next step. Try to clear the area and reach Sausalito/The Presido, and then try to reach Richmond District (keeping one defence point all the time whilst moving forward). Succeeding with this, the game is usually won. Richmond district is a very good defense point. This strategy can also work well in small multiplayer games. If your opponent is successful in caturing the Contra Costa bonus zone (and you are unable to break the bonus), then it is natural to go for a region count advantage to close the +2 troop bonus gap and/or try to conquer the S. San Franciso bonus zone at the other end of the map.

You hold a realistic chance of capturing any of the other bonus zones, with the exception of Downtown which can be assaulted from 6 different regions. The Marin bonus zone (+3 troop bonus) is similar to the Contra Costa bonus zone in the sense that it can only be assaulted from 2 regions, so starting with 3 or more regions will give you a good chance of conquering it. If your opponent captures the Marin bonus zone, you need to try and break it as it is difficult to gain a region count advantage to close a gap of +3 troop bonus. If you are unable to break the Marin bonus then try to conquer the S. San Franciso bonus zone. The Avenues, Oakland and S. San Francisco bonus zones are harder to conquer but should not be ruled out.

As with all two player games on this map, so much depends on the initial troop drop at the start of the game. If you start with more than half the regions in a bonus zone, you have a chance of conquering it. However to a certain extent it is better to aim for your opponent rather than assaulting neutral regions to capture a bonus zone.

All spoils work well on this map, it just comes down to personal preference. It may be worth noting that in escalating and flat rate games you will always have a chance. If your opponent has more regions and/or holds a small bonus zone at some stage, you can still compete with good timing for turning in a group of spoils. In a no spoils game, however, it is vital that you prevent your opponent from having more regions or conquering a bonus zone. Nuclear spoils are similar to no spoils, but having a higher number of regions than your opponent can be more important than holding a bonus zone because regions can be nuked at any time.

A fog of war setting makes little difference on this map, as the strategies are straight forward and you are likely to see almost all of your opponents regions at the start. Although you can be caught out if your opponent is able to conquer a bonus zone without you realizing, as long as you play with caution and follow your opponents moves you can easily prevent this.

Playing with the manual setting will give each player 28 troops to deploy at the start of the game. This option is fun but can be risky, as there is a chance the player going first can assault your stack(s) of troops and the game will be decided in the second round.

The most useful bottleneck regions are The Presidio and El Cerrito as they can be used to block the Marin and Contra Costa bonus zones. The other bottleneck regions are Sausalito, San Rafael, Refineries and Golden Gate Park(which divides The Avenues bonus zone and cannot be assaulted from outside the bonus zone). The only dead end region is San Pablo, although Angel Island could also be considered a dead end as it is only adjacent to Tiburon and Alcatraz, but the latter is a one way border.

The only bonus zone you should really attempt to conquer is Contra Costa, although it will probably make little difference in deciding the outcome of the game. The general strategy would be to have a few troop stacks in different parts of the map, which have a lot of reach and have access to other regions. When you see a good opportunity to eliminate an opponent for their spoils, you need to take it.

The San Francisco map is playable with 7-8 players, but it should be noted that your game could be ruined if you are low down in the playing order, as you could be reduced to 3 or 4 regions before your first turn. The danger of this is increased if you start with regions in a smaller bonus zone, mainly Contra Costa. Playing escalating games with fog of war will make things more difficult and makes the importance of holding regions with 5 or 6 adjacent regions much more important.

There are no specific strategies concerning flat rate, nuclear and no spoils on the San Francisco map. The general strategies used for "Classic-style" maps will work here as well.

The San Francisco map is better for smaller games because of its size. Playing with 6-8 players can lead to stalemate games with all players building up troops. The two bonus zones most easily conquered and held are Contra Costa and Marin, as they both have only 2 entry points (which makes them more easy to defend than the other bonus zones). The Avenues bonus zone may seem easy to hold but will prove to be difficult as the bonus zone can be assaulted from 5 regions. The S. San Francisco bonus zone becomes easier to hold if you can conquer Inner Sunset, Castro and Bernal Heights, but will still be difficult to hold.

In nuclear games it is unlikely you can hold a bonus for long when it is time to start turning in groups of spoils. It may be better to conquer more regions than your opponents and thus receive more troops at the beginning of every turn. It is also important not to leave troop stacks over the board as you would in escalating games, because they will be vulnerable at all times.

4 player doubles games will start with each player having 10 regions, 6 player doubles and triples games will start with each player having 7 regions, 8 player doubles and quadruples games will start with each player having 5 regions.

When playing doubles or triples games, capturing a bonus zone will give a big advantage, as it is unlikely that you will gain a region count advantage early on. What bonus zone you decide to go for just depends on the starting troop drop, but the best bonus zones to conquer are Contra Costa and Marin, as they are easiest to defend. Once conquered, you or your partner(s) should look to block the bonus zone by capturing the surrounding regions.

The Marin bonus zone can be blocked from outside the zone without increasing the number of borders, so it is recommended to have a troop block in place on The Presidio or City of Richmond and Refineries.

The Contra Costa bonus zone can be blocked from outside the zone by capturing the Refineries region. To block the other entry point, your team will need to hold both Tilden Park and Berkeley. If your team has chosen the strategy of capturing a bonus zone and then expanding, the Marin and Contra Costa bonus zones work well because you can defend both of them by putting troop blocks on just 2 regions (The Presidio and El Cerrito).

A troop block can be put in place to defend the Oakland bonus zone by building up on El Cerrito which will allow you to defend this entry point on 1 region rather than 2. You can also put up troop blocks on the SOMA and China Basin regions.

The Downtown bonus zone is near impossible to hold and The Avenues bonus zone is best defended by placing troop stacks within the bonus zone, with the exception of The Presido region which also can be blocked on Sausalito.

The S. San Francisco bonus zone is better protected by putting up troop blocks outside the bonus zone by conquering and holding the Inner Sunset/Golden Gate Park, Castro and Bernal Heights regions.

When playing quadruples games on the San Francisco map, the best strategy is to eliminate a player on the opposing team in the early stages. With good communication and smart reinforcements, it is possible to achieve this within 3 rounds. Once you have eliminated one player on the opposing team, you can continue to eliminate the remaining players in the same way. It can give you a small advantage conquering the Contra Costa bonus zone but this should not be the main goal. This strategy can also work well when playing triples games if your opponents are not well organised.

Although the Alcatraz region is technically a bonus, capturing it should be more of an "elimination" move, since any troops occupying Alcatraz are trapped and are unable to escape. If your team is trying to eliminate an opponent who occupies the Alcatraz region you can neutralize him or her by capturing all the other regions, leaving Alcatraz for last.